After a physical first matchup with always scrappy South Carroll, Westminster girls basketball coach Dave Urban knew exactly what he wanted to see from his defending county champion Owls on the road in their second meeting.
“Resilience,” he said. “First half they were very aggressive on defense and we had to adjust. Then they started to execute and that gave us the momentum we needed to pull away.”
The Cavaliers brought the heat in the first half, smothering leading scorer Maddy Gassman leading to a tied score at halftime. After a few adjustments, the Owls responded and dominated the second half en route to a 42-25 win Friday night in the opener of a doubleheader at South Carroll.
Westminster (10-2, 6-1) moves into a tie with Francis Scott Key atop the Carroll County standings, simultaneously knocking South Carroll (7-4, 5-2) out of first place.
“It was a really good win for us,” Gassman said. “We needed this win and we made the adjustments and started to take advantage of how aggressive they were playing us.”
Needing to respond to the Cavaliers’ physicality and constant attention on Gassman, the county’s leading scorer and rebounder, Xaviah Burgee found herself open in the paint, using her athleticism and fearlessness to establish herself as a force down low.
“I would say I’m more of a passer,” Burgee said. “I knew today I’d have to take some chances to help us get the lead back by driving and getting to the rim.”
Burgee finished with 11 points and was one of several key players that stepped up for the Owls. Knowing how much pressure Gassman will face nightly, Urban takes solace in the fact that the rest of the team is learning, coming together and doing a better job at playing off their star.
“They were playing really aggressive and overplaying so we set screens and hit the rollers off those screens once the slipped to the basket,” Gassman, who finished with 12 points, said. “Doing that got us some easy baskets in the lane.”
Defensively, the Owls’ adjustments were simpler, but they had a drastic effect on the rest of the game. Burgee, Gassman and others like Riley Bunting and Kole Peach decided enough was enough. They decided to match, and sometimes exceed the physicality and scrappiness of the Cavaliers with some of their own. The result was just eight second-half points for the Cavaliers.
“Sometimes, when a team is playing you physical, it might catch you off guard at first,” Burgee said. “We know as a team, we have to come right back at them with that same intensity, sometimes even more.”
Urban knows as the season’s final stretch approaches, the matchups will only get more physical. Friday’s game was a test that his girls aced, showing that they are ready for playoff basketball. The Owls can not only force the pace of a game and speed up or slow down a team to where they see fit, but they can also match energies and beat teams at their own game.
“All of them are contributing in their own way,” Urban said. “Their roles are starting to melt together and that’s when you see them play with more confidence and play to a level they didn’t even know they were capable of.”
Walker Fowble scores 26 to lead South Carroll boys past Westminster, 61-50
Walker Fowble lasted less than five minutes in the season’s first matchup against Westminster.
The guard left the game in the first quarter with a head injury, then missed some time as he worked his way back to becoming the impact player he knew the Cavaliers needed.
In front of a pumped South Carroll crowd, decked out in gold to celebrate two state championship winning teams and the newest members of the athletics Hall of Fame, Fowble put on an absolute show Friday night.
“I had to give the people what they came for,” he said with a smile. “I wasn’t able to fully show them the last time out, so I owed them.”
Fowble’s 26 points led the way as the Cavaliers avoided the sweep with a 61-50 win over the Owls.
“Walker was key for us,” coach Jim Carnes said. “When he wasn’t scoring he was still getting into the lane and finding the open man.”
With Fowble held to just five points in the first half and the county’s leading scorer Micah Puckett on the bench with three fouls, the Cavaliers bench stepped up, as the reserves and Benson Sommerfeldt and held down the fort. With Sommerfeldt and Charlie Mollman battling down low, Cam Karlosky, Preston Rhees and Brue Neff each came off the bench and hit key shots to keep the Cavaliers in the game and set the table for Puckett and Fowble to take the reigns.
“Everyone we brought in played some valuable minutes for us,” Carnes said as his team improved to 6-4 and 3-4 in the county.
Puckett was able to bounce back from the early foul trouble with seven points and Sommerfeldt embraced the tough matchup down low, adding 13 points and eight rebounds. The Owls (6-6, 6-2) were led by 15 points from Shae Greenwood and 13 from Will Mollman.
Ultimately, Fowble was the difference as he took over down the stretch, driving to the lane and being the aggressor every time he touched the ball. He kickstarted a South Carroll offense that pulled away in the second half for the big win on such an important night for the school.
“I was stressing in the first half, came out maybe too excited, but I pushed through.” Fowble said. “I wanted to create a show and I did.”
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